Absorbent articles for personal hygiene, such as disposable diapers for infants, training pants for toddlers, adult incontinence undergarments, and/or sanitary napkins are designed to absorb and contain body exudates, in particular large quantities of urine, runny BM, and/or menses (together the “fluids”). These absorbent articles may comprise several layers providing different functions, for example, a topsheet, a backsheet, and an absorbent core disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet, among other layers (e.g., acquisition layer, distribution layer, etc.), if desired.
The topsheet is generally liquid permeable and is configured to receive the fluids being excreted from the body and aid in directing the fluids toward an acquisition system, a distribution system, and/or the absorbent core. In general, topsheets may be made to be hydrophilic via a surfactant treatment applied thereto so that the fluids are attracted to the topsheet to then be channeled into the underlying acquisition system, distribution system, and/or the absorbent core. One of the important qualities of a topsheet is the ability to reduce ponding of the fluids on the topsheets before the fluids are able to be absorbed by the absorbent article. Stated another way, one design criteria of topsheets is to reduce the amount of time the fluids spend on topsheet prior to being absorbed by the absorbent article. If fluids remain on the surface of a topsheet for too long of a period of time, the wearer may not feel dry and skin discomfort may increase.
To solve the problem of the skin feeling wet during, for example, urination, because of prolonged fluid residency on the topsheets, apertured topsheets have been used to allow for faster fluid penetration. Although apertured topsheets have generally reduced fluid pendency on topsheets, topsheets can still be further improved by providing three-dimensional substrates that further reduce skin/fluid contact and/or skin/fluid contact time during, for example, a urination event.
Moreover, three-dimensional substrates, or other improved apertured topsheet materials, can be relatively expensive when compared to traditional topsheet materials. Accordingly, it is of continued interest to be able to attain the benefits of using three-dimensional substrates as topsheet materials, while limiting the added expense of employing such materials.